


Chat Blanc

by KennaM



Series: Fandom Kittens [9]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Kittens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 18:50:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5939454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KennaM/pseuds/KennaM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marinette finds a lost kitten on her way home from school, but doesn't know what to do with it. Adrien has a bit of trouble with the new cat on the block.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chat Blanc

“You should come over this weekend since you’re busy today,” Alya said, checking her phone for her Ladyblog visitor stats. The ladybug charm swung as she walked down the front steps of their school and turned down the sidewalk, and it wasn’t until she realized Marinette hadn’t answered that she looked up and realized her friend wasn’t beside her.

“Marinette?” she called. Alya looked around, and spotted Marinette creeping across the school’s grass lawn, towards the row of bushes that lined the school building. “What are you doing?”

“Shh!” Marinette said. She raised a finger to her lips, then pointed. Alya had to squint to see what looked to her like a giant white rat huddling under the leafy foliage, staring back out at them.

“Eugh, what is that?” Alya asked. Marinette shot her a look.

“It’s a kitten, Alya!” she said. Alya wasn’t so sure. “It must’ve gotten lost. I want to help it.” Marinette took another step towards the huddling shape in the bush, and the kitten crouched back even further into the shadows. “Don’t worry, little guy! I’m not here to hurt you!”

Alya shook her head, amused, and crossed her arms. “Just leave it, Marinette. It’ll find its way home eventually.”

Marinette was already crouching in front of the bush though, her hand outstretched to the huddling shape. “He’s so skinny though, I don’t think he’s eating. Are you eating, little guy?” Marinette starting clicking her tongue, beckoning the kitten out of the bushes. To Alya’s surprise, it crept forward and started sniffing your fingers.

“Wow,” Alya said. She stepped closer and the kitten flinched, but Marinette rubbed its cheek to distract it, and made cooing noises. “It really seems to like you.”

“I’ve got a good reputation with cats,” Marinette agreed with a grin. She reached over with her other hand and scooped the kitten up by its belly, holding it to her chest. Its white fur was covered in dirt and it struggled in her grasp, so Marinette ran her fingers over its head and shoulders soothingly. “It’s OK little guy,” she said, “I got you.”

Alya watched her with a smile. “So you gonna keep it?” she asked. Marinette’s expression immediately dropped.

“No, I’m….” Marinette frowned. “I can’t keep him. My parents would never let us have a cat in the bakery; too much fur. And I don’t know the first thing about taking care of cats.”

Alya sensed a ‘but’ and waited, tapping her foot.

“But we can’t just abandon him.” Marinette looked up at her sheepishly.

Alya hummed thoughtfully. “We’ll have to take it to the animal shelter,” she said. “I don’t want to know how my sisters react if I bring a stray animal home.” Speaking of, she thought, she’d better get home soon if she wanted to make sure her sisters didn’t tear the house apart in her absence.

“But what if he belongs to someone?” Marinette asked. “I’d hate to drop him off at the shelter where his family would never find him again. I should ask around, see if anyone’s missing him.”

“I thought you had to get home to watch the bakery,” Alya pointed out. It was the only reason they weren’t hanging out today, after all. Marinette visibly drooped.

“You’re right,” she agreed. “But it doesn’t feel right just leaving him here. I wish we could….” She didn’t finish whatever she’d meant to say, staring down sadly at the kitten. Alya got an idea.

“What if we got someone to keep it a few hours for you?” she asked.

“What?”

“Just for a few hours, until your dad’s back from his meeting and you can go out looking for the owner. Someone who isn’t busy this afternoon, like….” She glanced around, looking for someone they knew from class who hadn’t gone home yet, and grinned when her eyes landed on the boys still chatting by the front steps. “Nino! Adrien!”

Marinette’s eyes widened in shock. She tensed up as Alya beckoned the boys over, and Alya had to hold back a chuckle as she whispered “Relax, Marinette.”

“What’s up?” Nino called, but he stopped as soon as he noticed the kitten in Marinette’s arms.

“Marinette found a stray cat,” Alya said, “but she need someone to watch it for a couple hours until she can look for its owner. I’m too busy; can you boys help us out?” The kitten eyed the newcomers warily.

Adrien started to shrug, but Nino shook his head and backed up a few steps, leaving Adrien alone with Alya and Marinette. “Not me, man,” he said, holding his palms up defensively. Adrien’s eyebrows knit in confusion.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I’m allergic to cats,” Nino said.

“Since when?” Adrien asked, looking genuinely affronted that he didn’t already know this. Alya had to bite her lips and force herself not to smile.

“Since forever, man,” Nino said. “I thought everyone knew.”

Marinette was shooting Alya a wide-eyed look, and Alya faked a loud sigh, letting her shoulders slump in mock defeat. “That’s too bad,” she said, doing her best to sound forlorn. “We really didn’t want to leave this poor thing here by itself. What about you, Adrien?”

“What?” Adrien blinked.

“It wouldn’t be too much trouble, would it? You’d only have to watch it a few hours, then Marinette could come pick it up. Or you could bring it back to Marinette’s house, doesn’t matter.

Adrien’s stunned expression matched Marinette’s own. “Just don’t bring that thing near me,” Nino called from the edge of the curb. His voice seemed to snap Adrien out of his surprise.

“I,” he started to say, then frowned. “You want me to watch a cat for you?”

“Only if you’re not busy right now,” Alya said. “Are you?”

“I… no?” He said it more like a question, and that was all the encouragement Alya needed.

“Perfect!” she said, and she took Marinette’s elbow to pull her closer. The kitten in Marinette’s arms protested the movement and stared up at Adrien with its yellow eyes. If Alya didn’t know any better, she’d say the cat much preferred Marinette’s company and didn’t like the idea of being passed over to Adrien. Too bad, Alya thought.

“Y-you don’t have to d-do this,” Marinette was saying, stuttering and blushing. “If it’s t-too much to ask….”

Adrien was still processing the information. “I’m really sorry to impose,” Alya tried. “We’ll make it up to you, I swear.”

 

\--

 

Adrien closed his bedroom door quickly behind him when he got home, then dumped the contents of his school bag out onto his couch, kitten included. The made would probably complain about the dirt later but for the moment Adrien didn’t mind, because he’d just smuggled a dirty live animal into his bedroom and he had no clue what to do with it.

“Why did I agree to take you?” he asked the kitten. It just blinked up at him with a bored expression, and wandered the couch cushions to sniff at his school books and fencing clothes.

Plagg appeared at Adrien’s shoulder, tiny arms crossed in annoyance. “Why _did_ you take it?” he asked. “Another cat in my space is bad enough, but this thing ate my camembert. How could you do this?”

Adrien sighed and sank back against the glass window. “I fed it one tiny piece, Plagg. You’re fine.” He watched the kitten as it jumped onto the floor and began exploring the room.

“You didn’t have to hide in a small bag with this thing the whole ride home,” Plagg countered. “Do you know how smelly that cat is? You’ll have to make this up to me.”

Adrien sniffed the air, and didn’t smell a thing. “Take it up with Alya,” he said, standing up straighter and following the kitten to his computer. “And you could have hidden in my pocket if it was really that much trouble.”

“I had to guard my camembert!”

Adrien ignored his kwami and scooped the kitten up, holding it an arm’s length away from his body to protect himself from the dirt. “I should probably get you clean up,” he said to it, “and find you something to eat that doesn’t anger Plagg.”

The kitten squirmed in his hands, fighting to get back down on the floor. “That would be ideal,” Plagg muttered.

 

Getting the kitten cleaned turned out to be harder than Adrien anticipated. He knew cats hated water, but as soon as he turned the tab in his bathtub the kitten and jumped out over the rum and bolted back into his bedroom, hiding under the couch. He had to order a deli snack tray up to his room before he could coax it out with the meat. Plagg gave unhelpful commentary throughout the whole ordeal and Adrien threatened to take away the rest of his cheese before he would stop.

He got most of the dirt out of the kitten’s fur with a damp shower glove, until it decided that was a toy and attacked it. When Adrien retreated, the kitten decided his trailing shoelaces were worth chasing too, and even eyed the computer cords hanging down behind his desk until he distracted it with an old pair of cheaper earphones.

“I swear,” he told Plagg, perched at the edge of his bed, dragging the kitten around on the floor by the earphone it had clamped in its mouth. “This thing is trying to destroy me. Shouldn’t it like me?”

“Not necessarily,” Plagg said. He was taking refuge on Adrien’s pillow, where he knew the kitten wouldn’t be able to reach him. “It probably thinks you’re competition for the role of ‘top cat’.” Adrien rolled his eyes.

There was a knock on the door, and Adrien only had two seconds to stuff the kitten behind his bedside table before Nathalie opened the door and walked into the room. “Good afternoon, Adrien,” she said, stopping just inside the room.

Adrien jumped to his feet, kicking the end of the earphone cord out of sight. “Good afternoon, Nathalie,” he responded, then glanced over at the time displayed on his computer screens. “I thought Chinese wasn’t for another half hour.” He’d been hoping to have time to deposit the kitten back in Marinette’s hands before he had to meet his tutor.

“Your meeting has been canceled,” Nathalie said briskly.

“Canceled?”

“There’s been an… incident,” she said. She held out a tablet, and Adrien moved forward to take it from her. His schedule was written out on it, with his Chinese tutor written in for the following day. “Your schedule’s been rearranged slightly to adjust.”

He handed the tablet back then asked, trying to sound casual, “What incident?”

“Nothing Ladybug can’t handle, I’m sure,” Nathalie said. He watched as she left, then let out a breath and turned to find Plagg poking his head up from beneath Adrien’s pillow.

“Did you hear that, Plagg?” Adrien asked. Plagg pointed down at the kitten, who Adrien finally saw had chewed neatly through the cord.

“We can finally get away from that thing?” he asked.

 

\--

 

Ladybug recognized the kitten as soon as he rounded the corner onto the scene of their recent akuma attack and trotted up right behind her partner. She blinked in surprise, ignored Chat Noir’s waiting fist, and asked, “Who’s your admirer?” He stared at her in confusion until she pointed at the kitten.

Chat Noir let out a loud groan and moved to place Ladybug in-between them. “Not again,” he said.

“Not a good friend, then?” Ladybug asked with a chuckle. She got down on her knees to greet the kitten again, extending a hand for it to sniff. She wondered if he’d recognize her scent through the suit.

“This thing has been terrorizing me,” Chat Noir protested, arms crossed, “and now it’s following me around the city? It obviously hates me, Ladybug.”

“Aww, you don’t look capable of hating anyone,” Ladybug told the kitten. He’d started to rub his head against her palm, so she took that as a sign that he did remember her, and scratched under his chin. “Was Chat Noir being mean to you today? Is that why you’re lost?”

“I was not! _It_ was terrorizing _me_.” He pouted, then half-turned away from the scene and added, “And now it’s stealing my lady’s love, even though I just helped you defeat that akuma.”

Ladybug laughed, and scooped the kitten into her arms. She stood up again. “You’re just jealous there’s a cuter cat than you around down,” she said with a smirk.

Chat Noir audibly gasped. “I’m not jealous!” he insisted, looking offended, “I’m just tired of having to look at this nuisance! You would be too, if you found a feline terror following you all around Paris!”

Ladybug stared at her partner, an eyebrow raised. The irony seemed to be lost on him.

She could feel the kitten purring in her arms though, and she rubbed under his chin a few more times. “Don’t worry, little guy,” she said to the kitten. “You remember me, right? I’ll take care of you.”

“Remember you?” Chat Noir asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “You don’t mean to say you know this little terror, do you, my lady?”

“You’re the terror,” Ladybug countered. “And it doesn’t matter. I think I’ll go find where he belongs.” Her miraculous beeped a warned, and she pulled out her yo-yo.

Chat Noir was shooting her an impish grin, though, and she didn’t like it. “You don’t mean to tell me that this is _your_ kitty now, is it?” he asked. Ladybug almost laughed in surprise.

“Mine?” she said. “Why would he be mine?”

“How do you know he’s a he?” Chat Noir ask.

“I just-” Ladybug started to say, but her partner cut her off before she could finish.

“And he does seem to trust you very much,” he said. “Very suspicious, hmm?” Chat Noir leaned in close, ignoring the way his own miraculous beeped, and Ladybug took a step back.

“Why would I keep a pet kitten?” she asked, incredulous. “All the other cats I know are more trouble than they’re worth.”

Her dismissive tone didn’t lessen Chat Noir’s grin at all. “Oh,” he said, “maybe because you couldn’t get the real thing, so you had to settle for this second-rate loser.” He shot the kitten in her arms another glare, and Ladybug burst out laughing.

“I promise you,” she said when her laughing died down, “if I ever did get a cat, it wouldn’t be for that reason.” Her miraculous beeped again, and Ladybug swung her yo-yo high onto the roof of a neighboring building. “I’ll see you later, alley cat,” she said before swinging away.

She could still see Chat Noir standing there on the street, watching her with a grin, when she landing on the roof and glanced over her shoulder. He seemed to sigh before he ran off, then she was running across the rooftops, holding the kitten tight to her chest so he wouldn’t fall out of her grip.

 

\--

 

Adrien apologized for letting the cat escape, when Alya asked him about it the next day. His dad’s assistant had left his door open and the cat had somehow gotten out. But it was OK, Alya told Marinette, because Ladybug found the kitten after that akuma attack. She pulled up the story as she had written it out on the Ladyblog, and Marinette and Adrien both sighed in relief.


End file.
